We haunt every medium we make.

May 29, 2014

Fear the Facebook Rift

The article begins with a shrieking headline:"Facebook twists reality again and risks ruining your children". Then Keith Ablow is off to the races, hitting all kinds of fearsome digital media buttons:

Addiction ("My theory is that Facebook is an addictive technological drug... the Oculus VR will make matters worse.")

Medical discourse (bringing in the FDA right off the bat)

A call for regulation ("There is no FDA in the technology space to make sure that new inventions distributed to tens or hundreds of millions of people aren’t going to hurt them. But maybe there has to be.")

Virtual world somehow wars against the physical: "Has anyone wondered whether [Mark Zuckerberg]'s quest reflects an underlying contempt for something he lived through for real -- or for our shared reality, our real relationships and solving our real problems?" And "There are lots of Americans who already sit around and play games like Wartune until they have no money left in their bank accounts, have let their jobs go and have ruined their relationships."

There's also a quiet religious (Christian) argument:

I can’t be the only one wondering whether someone who encourages people to make hundreds of false “friends” and block unwanted feedback and transport themselves into games where they pretend they are knights or murderers is the best shepherd to follow. (emphases added)